Utahns help Sri Lanka

Scott Evensen was walking his dog near his home in Provo when a neighbor yelled, "Scott, wait!"

At that moment two great grass-roots relief efforts began to merge, with the result that thousands of cartons of supplies are on their way to assist the residents of Sri Lanka. The first cargo containers were to leave this week for the tsunami-ravaged Asian country.

The neighbor, Joy Lundberg, knew Evensen worked closely with Paul Holton, "Chief Wiggles," the Salt Lake man who heads Operation Give. That project dates from late 2003, when Holton was stationed in Iraq with the Utah National Guard and launched the program to deliver donated supplies to Iraqi kids.

Lundberg and her husband, Gary, have a friend in Sri Lanka who works in an organization aimed at uniting people of all faiths. Their friend had told the Lundbergs of horrendous problems facing residents of Sri Lanka resulting from the Dec. 26 tsunami.

There were "orphaned children, the schools wiped out, kids with no clothes" in Sri Lanka, she told Evensen.

The Lundbergs were gathering items to send to that ravaged nation, which is an island south of India in the Indian Ocean. The latest estimates place the death toll in Sri Lanka at more than 30,000, the second hardest-hit country after Indonesia. One report says the displaced in Sri Lanka could number 1 million.

Gary Lundberg said their Sri Lankan friend is Asim Alavi. They had met him through work they were doing with the World Family Policy Center, based at Brigham Young University, Provo. The couple met Alavi in Doha, Qatar, during a conference about the family.

"When the tsunami hit, basically we worried about him," Gary Lundberg said.

Through e-mail they were able to contact Alavi and learn that he and his family had survived the walls of water. But Alavi said the situation in Sri Lanka is horrible.

"He said the biggest challenge was for the children," Lundberg said. "And he just said, 'Is there anything you can do for our children?' "

The youngsters needed simple things like T-shirts, washcloths, toothbrushes, toothpaste, coloring books. Their feet were getting cut on flood debris, Gary Lundberg added, "so we also looked at the idea that maybe we could get some flip-flops" for the children.

Simple medical kits and school supplies also were high on the list of needs.

"He said, 'We're not rebuilding a nation, . . . we're having to rebuild a culture.' "